food

~ Brin ~ 1 Comment

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justice-turtle:

You know, as long as I’m thinking about it, let’s run the numbers here, maybe y’all can point out some things I’m overlooking that would make living either more or less expensive than I’m estimating.

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>>Depending on what kind of deal I could get on my internet service, it could cost anywhere from $50-$100 a month.<<

…holy shit, I thought paying USD$80 for four people was bad. (I mean, it kind of *is* bad, I’m pretty sure we could save a couple dozen dollars a month if we hadn’t gone and locked ourselves into these guys’ email-address system. We were all young and foolish once.)

>>estimate that everybody’s car drives at least 15k miles a year<<

That’s approximately 40 miles/day on average (including weekends). Does that seem like a reasonable assessment of what a job-having!you is likely to need? It seems kind of high to me; maybe USAA is assuming a pretty long commute?

(Would it be feasible for you to pull your actual figures from when you were a call-center worker by looking at old bank records and such? My own estimates of what my family is likely to spend in the future always start with a baseline of what we actually spent in previous years. I have Google Sheets breaking down our expenses (and incomes) for each of 2016, 2017, and 2018 (updated quarterly) by category.)

>>And iirc my grandfather used to say that you should budget as much for car repairs / maintenance as you do for petrol<<

Mind you, petrol was rather cheaper in your grandfather’s day. I don’t know about you, but our car-repair cost in 2017 equalled 55% of our petrol cost.

>>Meat is fucking expensive, okay? :P<<

It occurs to me that you, too, have a generally cheaper country to the south, not so far away. Can you pull any New-York-style exploitation of cost-of-living differences in Mexico? It’d be pretty bargain-hunty, but I seem to recall you once went to a Mexican dentist to save money, so there’s some precedent. (There are extra language-barrier and border-security issues compared to Canada-to-America cost-of-living tricks, though. Not sure how big those effects are.)

For smaller-scale bargain-hunting, you can try checking around to see if there are any little butchers or anything that sell meat cheaper than your usual grocery chains. The cheapest meat seller in this county (that I know of) is a non-chain grocery store that we overlooked for ages until a friend told us about how cheap their steaks were.

Also, did you get that PM I sent you a while back about how to use Amazon credit at Safeway?

(The offer to sell you Amazon credit at 10% off is still open, if you ever want. Conversion-via-electronics is workable, but it’s a pain and it means the 10% lost goes to some random person on Craigslist. You could pay in USD and I’d deal with the currency-conversion issues myself (and maybe figure out a trick that’ll let me funnel it directly to New York trips and never pay any conversion fees at all; still working on that).)

I also keep a spreadsheet of food prices expressed in cents-per-calorie. Some of them are much cheaper than I expected, notably peanut butter (as cheap as ramen!) and bananas. Plus, even when you’re specifically looking for meat, there’s a lot of price spread between different meats. (Mom occasionally says stuff about not really being able to afford a diabetic-friendly diet, and I always tell her there’s still *relative* cheapness to be found even within medical restrictions. If she thinks she ought to spend less on food, she can replace some of her canned tuna with (non-canned) chicken (which costs half as much).) I can’t be too specific without more knowledge of your own local food prices than I have, but some things to keep in mind.

>>Do any of you know what one normally spends on this sort of thing?<<

I don’t. My expense-tracking spreadsheets work at the granularity of a transaction, which means most sundries get lumped in with groceries under “things bought at grocery stores”.

>>I am reluctant to switch too much up on that, as due to some interesting bits of luck, I am currently month-to-month rather than on a contract.<<

Is that difficult to come by in America? (And here they told me Canada had some of the worst cell plans out there, far worse than America.)

Recently I systematically went through every cell brand with coverage in this area and compared their plans (all of them had no-contract options, though they weren’t always front-and-centre), which is why I was able to find Dad a $40/month plan big enough to cover his work needs. The main thing I learned was to *never ever* buy from a flagship brand: buy from a little reseller or offshoot brand instead. (Holy shit, do the Big Three ever overcharge on their flagship-brand plans.) But, again, the Canadian cell-plan situation is famously weird, so I don’t really know what Arizona is like with that.

How much mobile data do you have? How much do you need? How much data can you offload onto non-mobile-data versions of the same thing? (…she says, as someone who carries an offline copy of Wikipedia with her at all times and has memorised the location and size of every public Wi-Fi hotspot within walking distance†.) Can you arrange to downgrade? (I know you need some mobile data for mental-health reasons, but like with Mom eating chicken instead of fish, sometimes there’s still room to do less-expensive versions of a necessary expensive thing.)

>>Laundry. Roughly $5 a week at the laundromat for one large load of laundry. This covers the amount of laundry I generate, which I know because my aunt hauls me to the laundromat every week. Still, it adds up; $260 a year for laundry, not counting detergent (which goes under Sundries). *sigh*<<

Does that mean it’s safe to assume the Hypothetical Apartment won’t come with a washing machine and dryer? I’ve always had a washing machine and dryer in my house, so I have no idea how to optimise laundromat usage. (My laundry optimisation looks like “run the machine during off-peak hours to reduce its electricity cost”.)

>>Clothes. Once again I haven’t the faintest notion how much these actually cost.<<

I haven’t bought much in the way of new clothes since I started keeping track of expenses (I haven’t finished wearing out all my clothes from before), so neither do I. When I do buy clothes these days, I generally buy from thrift stores, but I suspect you’d have a lot of trouble trying to find anything there in your size.

(Mom is somewhere around your size, and she managed to get a 50%-off birthday coupon from a Canadian plus-size clothing chain after signing up for their mailing list.)

You could really do with some housemates who don’t suck so you could get some bulk discounts happening, but if that were actionable advice you’d probably have done it already.

*hugs*

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†And keeps being surprised and kind of horrified by how little attention her offline friends and acquaintances pay to minimising their data usage. (Do you know how many people I’ve met at Wi-Fi-blanketed Pokemon gyms who *didn’t know* they were in a Wi-Fi zone? (No wonder they’d been so surprised when I told them I was able to play Pokemon Go 1 – 2 hours/day on a 100 MB/month plan.) Do you know I once had a friend burn through her entire month’s allotment in four days, and she neither knew nor cared why?)

Tags:

#reply via reblog #adventures in human capitalism #our home and cherished land #home of the brave #disordered eating?

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justice-turtle:

ok so i’m pretty sure i know at least one or possibly two people in toronto

so one of the players from my d&d group has a question for y’all

she says “me and my gaggle of rich white friends are planning a road trip to canada, toronto is only like 8 hours from chi town so like not terrible, i was wondering what’s like fun stuff to do besides niagara falls and excessive drinking”

so uh, yeah. any suggestions? :-)

The CN Tower is neat if you’re okay with heights. (The elevator hurts your ears a bit, though. Try to swallow a lot or otherwise relieve the pressure.) There’s a transparent panel in one part of the floor. I’m not sure if my Girl Guide leader ever gave me the picture she took of me lying on that panel, with the ground far below as the backdrop, but that exists somewhere and you might like to do the same.

Casa Loma could be good, but I’m not sure what it’s like when they’re not hosting a big Girl Guide event.

There’s a biggish† amusement park in Vaughan (just outside Toronto) called Canada’s Wonderland. I’ve been there, like, once, over a decade ago, but I think it was decent?

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I’m guessing from the Niagara Falls mention that it’s more of a “general Southwestern Ontario” thing than a “just Toronto” thing, so further out stuff:

Hmm. I mean, I went on a lot of field trips in my teens, but I feel like a lot of them are…like, they’re nice, but not in a *distinctive* way. (Also, some of them were *only* for school and school-like groups: the Woodlawn Memorial Park cemetery in Guelph would be pretty dull without their (great) school tour.) There are plenty of other museums in other places that are just as nice. Still, a general “always check out the local museums when touristing” policy will serve you pretty well here as it will elsewhere.

Some exceptions and possible exceptions to the general “check out museums”:

Last I heard the Ontario Science Centre (in Toronto) was kind of overpriced if you don’t already have a reciprocal membership with another museum††, but I think they’ve added more stuff since then and might be worthwhile now? And you might be rich enough not to care in any case.

The Canadian Medical Hall of Fame (in London) is basically just their website given physical form (a bunch of plaques and some screens with videos). If you’re interested in their stuff, just read the website (…if your computer can handle it): don’t bother showing up in person.

You note that most-to-all of the people in your group are white, so probably don’t go to any archaeology museums (the one I’m thinking of is the Museum of Ontario Archaeology in London) unless you’re the right kind of woke masochists (or are on the opposite end of the caring spectrum and aren’t bothered by Let’s Talk About These People Your People Oppressed at all; you do you, none of my business how many fucks you actually give about people as long you treat them okay). It’s too awkward otherwise to qualify as “fun stuff”.

(I kind of want to check out an archaeology museum in Europe someday. I bet they’re less awkward.)

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I can’t give a whole lot in the way of restaurant recommendations, because my ability to take pleasure from food is somewhat limited. (Like, I *can* enjoy food, but I don’t really enjoy fancy food much *more* than plain food, and it never gets to the waxing-rhapsodic kinds of levels I’ve seen other people reach.)

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The fact that you phrase it as “a road trip to Canada” implies you aren’t already in Canada, so maybe some more national-level stuff would be useful.

If you haven’t had Tim Tams before and are curious about them, they sell those at Zehrs (a grocery store chain of moderate fanciness/pricey-ness). Imported from Australia and everything.

If you haven’t had Mars bars before and are curious about them, they sell those pretty much anywhere with an impulse-buy rack. I don’t think they’re imported from Britain, but it probably doesn’t matter. They’re basically the same as Milky Ways in America, though. (to be confusing, Milky Way in Britain refers to what both America and Canada call “3 Musketeers”)

The best flavours of Tim Hortons bagel are Tomato Asiago (not as pizza-like as you would expect, but a different kind of good) and Garlic Parmesan, with Chive getting an honourable mention. Get them toasted and buttered for best results. They’re not available all the time in all branches, though, and tbh I don’t actually know if they carry them at all anymore; it’s been a while since I ate there. The fruit slushies are good too, and the muffins are decent. I don’t tend to buy anything else there (I don’t drink coffee).

(In general–and this might seem obvious to you already, I don’t know, but just in case–keep an eye out for interesting-looking food you wouldn’t be able to get in your normal location. I’ve lived here long enough that it’s kind of hard to dig through my memory for which things struck me as strange at first, though I could probably go “oh yeah, that was one of them” if somebody presented me with one.)

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(JT, let me know how this goes if you can; I’m curious.)

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†I went googling to confirm the name and Wikipedia calls it “the country’s largest”, so maybe I’m just spoiled by having seen Disney World.

††If you travel a lot and like museums at all (and haven’t already done this), maybe look into whether any of your local museums are part of a reciprocal-membership agreement and get a membership there. Back when I was an upper-middle-class South Jerseyan, my family had a membership at the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, and it served us well throughout the East Coast. (Would probably have served us well out West, too, if we’d ever gone there.)

Tags:

#reply via reblog #our home and cherished land #the more you know #our roads may be golden or broken or lost #is the blue I see the same as the blue you see #long post #food

Image ~ ~ Brin ~ 1 Comment

{{previous post in sequence}}

(pictured above: mango smoothie and blueberry muffin)

Everything tastes better when it’s free!

I’m so glad I looked up birthday promotions a couple weeks ago. (Especially since you have to sign up for these a week in advance, presumably to encourage people to give their *actual* birthdays and not just whatever the current day is.)

(I mean, I had to subscribe to their respective newsletters, but I have a dedicated email address specifically for receiving newsletters from people who might give me free stuff, so no big deal. And both stores were on the way to the Chinese takeout place, so the fuel cost was negligible.)

Tags:

#adventures in human capitalism #birthday #oh look an original post #food

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

somnilogical:

ive been having fun calculating food costs per kcal

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huel 4.24 μ$/kcal

soylent 3.8 μ$/kcal

eggs 3.2 μ$/kcal

rice 1.6 μ$/kcal

ramen 1.11 μ$/kcal

lentils 1.0 μ$/kcal

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humans consume ~2*10^3 kcal/day

1 μ$/kcal foods let you live for 2 $/day

humans consume 6*10^4 kcal in a month

there are 8.1*10^4 kcal in a human

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i like getting a sense of things

I do this too! Since my post-2012 appetite is pretty good at adjusting for the calorie density of my food, the intuitive unit for “how *big* is this food relative to other foods” is the kcal. (Which runs into problems when I’m trying to figure out relative food prices *in general*, because Mom’s intuitive appetite unit is the “serving” (whatever *that* means) and Dad’s is the “millilitre”, so we sometimes can’t even agree on whether one piece of food is bigger than another. But as long as I focus on only my own eating I can get a good sense of it.)

A lot of things turn out to be cheaper than they look because of high calorie-density. I was especially surprised by peanut butter: I figured it would be *somewhat* on the cheap side, but it’s as cheap as ramen. (In my own circumstances, that is; I notice your figure for ramen is higher than mine, if I moved the decimal places right (I work with “cents to two decimal places”). Both peanut butter and ramen were 0.06 cents/kcal.)

Tags:

#food #adventures in human capitalism #reply via reblog #disordered eating #(I’m okay but I expect people blocking that tag do not want to read this)

Definition of “rationalist”

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

plain-dealing-villain:

inferentialdistance:

plain-dealing-villain:

fuck-planets:

A person who thinks Eliezer Yudkowsky got some things wrong

oh shit I’m a fake rationalist

What, you agree with him about onions?

oh wait nvm I’m a rationalist.

Tags:

#high context jokes #anything that makes me laugh this much deserves a reblog #(I say this as someone who agrees with Eliezer Yudkowsky about onions) #((I still remember the time I accidentally left the onion out of my quiche and was shocked at how much better the quiche was without it)) #((been deliberately leaving it out ever since)) #food

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colchrishadfield:

Favorite Girl Scout cookies, by state. Seeing this, my state is hungry.

Tags:

#…since when is New Jersey’s favorite Girl Scout cookie not Thin Mint #has something changed in the past ten years? #(okay things clearly *have* changed because I don’t recognise like half of these but still) #does North Jersey love Samoas enough to outweigh South Jersey’s love of Thin Mints? #(Samoas were pretty popular but not *Thin-Mint*-level popular) #home of the brave #food #Girl Scouts

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godotal:

As an Android user, I finally gave in and bought my first Apple device. I have to say I’m impressed, even if it only has a single-core processor

Tags:

#puns #this reminds me of the ”Android crashes on boot when running from SD card” one #food?

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

tilt-me-just-right:

conversations-across-the-rainbow:

You know, I think one of the most sheltered things about being blue is how we are not taught to openly appreciate the simple pleasures in life. Often It’s all about posturing and about how *this* expensive place is the *best* and how much money you can spend to splurge on a dessert made by tired kitchen workers that ultimately are just good at making things look fancier instead of tastier and then charge ten times the price. (Not, to say there aren’t very talented cooks out there.)

Anyway, I’m enjoying an egg-salad sandwich that is really good. How about you guys?

The presentation/tastiness tradeoff is a bigger deal than I think a lot of restaurant-goers realize. Especially when you wind up with food that looks nigh architectural; they have to do wacky things to it to make it look like that. I know no one likes to eat beige glop, but once you’ve gotten past “beige glop” there’s not a lot of efficient frontier in pretty food that doesn’t sacrifice any flavor or texture for it.

Tags:

#Amenta RP #food #I didn’t actually laugh aloud but it still amused me enough to reblog #(I’m amused because I’m literally ooc-ly eating beige glop right now) #(and it is very likeable) #((I prefer to mash up my apple crumb pie before I eat it)) #((so that the filling and the topping are blended together))

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Banana Ripeness Tiers

guardians-of-the-food:

How do y’all eat your bananas?
1-5 anything else is gonna be baked or ice cream or smoothiefied

 

ainawgsd:

1-6. 7 or 8 maybe if I had a strong craving. Anything past that is inedible unless mashed and used as an ingredient in something

 

bilbo-swwaggins:

Noah fence but 1-5 is unripe you ignorant fucks

 

faun-songs:

4-7, 8 is pressing it.

 

absua:

White culture is eating unripe bananas.

 

artgroupie:

1-5?! i don’t go anywhere near under 8 unless it’s my only choice. ideal is 9-12

 

valsdas:

“8 is pressing it” i am… disgusted.gif

 

poison-liker:

i exclusively eat unripened bananas, on pizza

 

zephronias:

8,9,19. You all are weak.

 

captaindibbzy:

5 to 10 is my ideal.

 

xserpx:

8-11. They’re only good when they start getting little brown spots.

 

apprenticebard:

6-11. 9 is ideal.

Supposedly I had a great-grandfather who ate one entirely black banana every day, and who lived into his nineties, so I don’t think the overripe ones will hurt me, but after a certain point they taste weird. So once you get to 12, you have to make banana bread.

 

tchtchtchtchtch:

6 is the perfect sweet spot where it’s a nice vibrant yellow and perfectly ripe and doesn’t have any brown yet. So, that if I can, otherwise as close to it as possible.

 

another-normal-anomaly:

3-7, unripe bananas for the win. Also as per upthread I would be fascinated to find out if this is correlated with a) race or b) national origin. I mean, enjoyment of capsaicin and enjoyment of lots and lots of sugar are both correlated with national origin IIRC, so maybe banana preference is too.

Ideal banana: 11

Good banana: 10, 12, 13

Tolerable-but-I’d-rather-not banana: 9, 14, 15

Inedible banana: 8 and below

If it still has even the faintest trace of green, it’s not ripe enough.

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Race: White*

National origin: United States (northeast)

Enjoyment of capsaicin: no

Enjoyment of lots and lots of sugar: not nearly as much as I used to, maybe just one “lot”

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*Your mileage may vary. Some terms and conditions may apply. Your whiteness may be revoked at any time without notice.

Tags:

#food #survey #reply via reblog #(tbh ”is Brin white” has much the same answer as ”is Brin queer”) #(nobody can agree on the object-level answer but everyone agrees that I’m low-status) #our roads may be golden or broken or lost #(tangentially) #racism cw? #home of the brave

FOOD DISCOURSE

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

jeffreineadelaiide:

your pizza order

favorite ice cream

top 3 fruits

favorite cuisine

buffalo wild wings order

favorite breakfast order

Tags:

#tag rambles #1. plain cheese #2. it used to be Thin Mint #but I’ve found lately that I prefer my desserts to contain nuts #(…maybe I could mix nuts *into* the Thin Mint ice cream) #(ooh) #3. empirically oranges/bananas/apples #(”empirically” = ”what I eat most”) #but I’d eat nectarines more often if they weren’t so expensive #(though even then I’d only eat them in the summer) #(never eat nectarines imported from another hemisphere they’re terrible) #(nectarine-shaped greyish flavourless disturbingness) #4. it was Italian like a decade ago but now I’m not sure #maybe Chinese #5. is this a restaurant? never been there #6. I never eat out for breakfast #I stay home and eat a fruity granola bar #(I used to have yogurt but it’s too expensive) #(and doesn’t keep as long) #(so you can’t buy a three-month supply when it’s on sale and live off of it until the next sale) #(you actually have to pay full price a large percentage of the time) #(also last year I found out I enjoy Nutri-Grain mixed berry and blueberry bars) #(I used to think I disliked them but it turns out I actually just don’t like the apple ones) #((which is a shame because apple was my favourite flavor of Quaker fruit bar but they stopped making them ages ago)) #(((I’m going to deliberately leave ”flavor” that way because))) #(((it’s interesting how I sometimes subconsciously use American spellings when discussing American things)))